The Misadventures of Shadow and Maria
by ChibiOfCuteness
Summary: A series of one-shots based on Shadow and Maria's childhood in Space Station ARK. Open for one-shot requests.


Maria Robotnik sat in her grandfather's lab playing by herself. She sighed occasionally wishing her playmate and best friend, Shadow, would wake up from his nap. Not only was she bored, but she had this nagging feeling that she was forgetting something. She just couldn't remember what it was.

It suddenly hit her and an audible gasp escaped her lips, drawing the attention of the older man who sat nearby.

"What's wrong, Maria?" Gerald Robotnik asked his granddaughter as he turned to look at her, a look of concern on his face.

"Nothing, Grandfather." Maria said, looking back at him as she hurriedly got to her feet and gathered up her toys. "I just remembered something important and have to go tell Shadow!"

Before Gerald could say anything more, Maria had disappeared from the room and the sound of her footsteps steadily grew farther away. She stopped at her room and dumped the toys on the bed so she didn't have to carry them before heading to where she knew Shadow would be.

Maria found the hedgehog boy sleeping on one of the many couches in ARK so she climbed up onto the arm of the chair and knelt down to where her face was barely an inch from touching his.

"Shadow, wake up! It's important." She told him. He opened her eyes and jumped up when he saw her so close, resulting in their heads smacking together. Maria instinctively jolted up at the impact and lost her balance, accidentally falling off the arm of the couch.

"Are you okay, Maria?" Shadow asked leaning over the arm of the couch to look down at her.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Maria said, rubbing her forehead where a small red bump was forming.

"Sorry 'bout that." Shadow told her. "You scared me."

"Sorry, but I had to wake you up quickly. I just remembered something important and now I feel bad that I forgot it." Maria said, looking at him.

"What is it?" The young hedgehog asked her.

"I just remember it's Grandfather's birthday today." Maria said, playing with the hem of her dress. "I feel really bad that I forgot and I want to do something for him, but I guess it's too late."

"Nuh-uh!" Shadow protested, "We can still do something. Cakes don't take that long to bake and we can make decorations out of paper and crayons. As for a present...well, we can think of that while we're working."

Maria looked up at him.

"You really think we can do all that by ourselves?" She asked.

"Yup! Dr. Robotnik says I'm some 'ultimate life form' and you're really smart so I'm sure we can do it." He told her with a smile.

"Alright then." Maria nodded and gave him a bright smile in return. "Let's throw Grandfather a party!"

"Which should we do first? The cake or the decorations?" Shadow asked.

"Hmm. We should do the cake first because we can make decorations while it's cooking." Maria suggested.

Shadow nodded. "Come on then. Race you there, Maria!"

The hedgehog boy took off running down the gray paneled hallways at a slower rate than what he was actually capable of, making sure Maria could keep up. Like always, though, Shadow let Maria pass him when they got close to their destination. She knew he let her win and she had told him before not to, but he refused to listen.

When they arrived at the kitchen, Maria stood with her hands on her knees, a little out of breath, but Shadow was fine.

"Um, Maria." Shadow said, looking around the large kitchen area.

"What?" Maria panted, looking over at him. 

"Do you know how to make a cake?"

Maria straightened up and looked around the room.

"Maybe. I watched the cook bake one once, but I don't know if I remember how." She replied.

"Well...try your best to, I guess." He said. Maria walked to the pantry and looked inside.

"I know we need flour." She stood on her tiptoes reaching for the bag. She could barely reach and ended up sending it raining down on her head. Maria coughed and swatted the air, trying to disperse the colorless powder.

Shadow giggled at his friend. "You look like a ghost!" He pointed out.

"I do?" Maria asked, turning to look at herself in the reflection of a nearby bowl. When she saw herself covered in white, she laughed, a mellifluous ringing sound.

"I do!" She chirped through her giggles.

"Is there still enough flour for the cake?" Shadow asked once the laughter had died. Maria picked up the bag and peered inside.

"There should be."

"Good. What else do we need?"

"Eggs...milk...sugar...and...butter, I think." She answered, grabbing each ingredient as she said its name.

"And we blend these all together?" Shadow asked.

"Yup!" Maria chirped, dumping the flour in the mixing bowl. They added in the milk, followed by two whole eggs, shell and all, half a bag of sugar, and a stick of butter. Maria started up the blender and let it go for about three minutes.

"Shadow, can you get me that pan please."

"Yup."

Shadow reached up to grab the pan but knocked a bowl onto the floor, making it shatter.

"Oops." He said quietly.

"Don't worry. We have plenty of those." Maria told him.

Shadow nodded and carried the pan over to her. Maria dumped the batter into the pan and pushed a chair up to the oven. She set the temperature at 400° and slipped the cake in.

"There we go!" Maria smiled proudly and she climbed down from the chair. "Now for decorations!"  
"You stay here and watch the cake. I'll go get the stuff." Shadow told her. Maria nodded as Shadow ran out of the room.

He returned later, his arms laden with crayons, paper, and a pair of safety scissors.

"What should we make?" Maria asked as she watched Shadow lay it out on the floor.

"Hmm...well, I think I saw somewhere where people made chains out of strips of paper."

"Ooh! That sounds pretty! And we can hang them up in his lab and surprise him."

"Yeah. I bet he'll love it!"

The two smiled brightly as they began their paper chains. They worked steadily until they had cut up all of the colored paper.

"Hey, what's that smell?" Shadow asked, sniffing the air as he gathered up the paper rings.

"What sm- the cake!" Maria exclaimed pushing the chair back up to the oven. The yopened the door to see the cake burned to a muddy brown color.

"It's ruined." Shadow said disappointedly.

"Maybe not. I bet if we put enough frosting on it, it'd taste good." Maria said. "Can you hand me those oven mitts, please?"

"Maybe. What kind of icing should we use?" He handed her the oven mitts and she carefully took the cake out of the oven and put it on the counter.

"What kind of icing should we use?" Repeated Shadow when she didn't answer fast enough.

"I want pink icing." Maria said "And lots of sprinkles."

"Pink? That's too girly. We should do it with some cooler color like black."

"That would just be really depressing, Shadow." Maria told him.

"No, it's not!" Shadow protested.

"Yes, it is. Besides, they don't even make black icing."

"Sure they do."

Maria sighed. There had to be some way to settle this.

"Ooh! What if we had an icing battle?" Maria suggested, smiling and clapping her hands together.  
"An icing battle? Is there where we throw icing at each other? Wouldn't that be messy." Shadow asked, tilting his head to one side. Maria giggled.

"No, silly. You get black icing and I get pink icing and we frosting the cake as fast as we can with our own colors, but we can't cover up each others icing. Once we're done, we can only decorate our own icing."

"Oh, okay. That sounds like fun." Shadow said with a smile.

The two grabbed their respective icing colors and set to work with their battle. It ended up being pretty even. Maria decorated her half with sprinkles and Shadow dotted his with red candles.

"I'll get the cake and you grab the decorations." Shadow told her. Maria responded with a nod and chirped, "okay". They carried the stuff down to the labs.

"Is Grandfather working?" Maria asked the first person she saw, an older man with salt and pepper hair.

"No, he just stepped out. I think he's looking for you two actually." He told the children.

"Good." Maria nodded. "Don't tell him where we are yet. We're gonna surprise him."

"Alright. Be careful though." The man told them, seeing the paper. "I think he's got an experiment with fire going...that or he's just tinkering with stuff again."

"Don't worry! We will!" Maria assured him as she ran off with Shadow in tow. They arrived at Gerald's lab and Maria placed the cake on one of the tables.

"Oh!" Maria exclaimed suddenly.

"What?" Shadow asked, turning to look at her. He wore a quizzical expression.

"We forgot a present." Maria said anxiously. Everything had to be perfect now that she had forgotten his birthday. "We have to have a present."

"Hmm..." Shadow moaned in thought. "How about you draw him a picture. You're really good at that."

"But I draw him pictures all the time." Maria told him.

"Draw him a really special picture this time. He'll love it." Shadow insisted.

"Alright then." Maria said with a slight nod.

"I'll start decorating. You head back to the kitchen and get some paper and the crayons." Shadow offered.

"Thank you." Maria nodded once and ran out of the door. She made her way down the long, winding hallways if the space station as fast as her legs could carry her. She stumbled to a stop when she heard her grandfathers voice around the corner.

Maria peeked around to see him talking to one of the scientists with his back turned to her. She sighed quietly and slowly stepped out, making sure that her steps were silent. Slowly, she made her way across the doorway and into the safety of the kitchen, where her art supplies waited for her on the cool gray floors.

The little girl sat down and pulled a piece of paper towards her. She stared at it for several moments before finally deciding what to do. A bright smile graced her lips as she set to work.

When Maria had finished, she stood up, drawing in hand, and started towards where she left Shadow. She found her grandfather still talking with the same guy, buy they had migrated around the corner and now she could only hear the echo of their voices.

She snuck past a little more quickly this time. Once out of ear-shot, she sped off at a full sprint. She was nearly three quarters of the way there when the fire alarm rang, echoing loudly through the halls. Maria instinctively covered her ears with her hands. Scientists chattered anxiously as they followed the well-known fire safety protocols. One stopped in front of her.

"Come on, Maria." He said. Her name was well known amongst the whole space station. "Follow me. Everything's gonna be alright."

Maria shook her head.

"I have to go find Shadow!" She shouted over the piercing wails of the siren and ran around him before he could get the chance to stop him. She continued down the hallway, pushing pasts the multitude of scientists, until she reached the door of Gerald's main lab room.

Maria pushed it open to see a small black hedgehog frantically running around the room trying to put out a flaming paper chain that had been draped around the room. She noticed that off to her left the paper chain had been strewn through the chemistry set and the fire was on, though she was unsure of whether or not it had been on before or Shadow had accidentally turned it on.

"Come on, Shadow! We have to leave! It's dangerous in here!" Maria shouted from the doorway, scared to get any closer to the growing flames that steadily worked on engulfing the room. She was surprised nothing had blown up yet, but she knew it would probably happen.

"But...the party..." Shadow said, sadly. They had worked so hard and now, because of some stupid accident, he had ruined it all.

"Forget it! Let's just go!" She told him, turning to look to her left when she heard a familiar voice.

"Maria! Shadow!" Gerald said as he appeared in the doorway. He urged Maria down the hallway, glancing behind him to see Shadow following. "You two leave now."

He reached one hand back to grab Shadow and gently push him forward.

"Go!" He instructed. Shadow grabbed Maria's hand and took off at the fastest speed he could where Maria could still keep up.

The two followed the hoard of still coming scientists to the designated place where they all were to meet in such a situation. Maria was crying by the time they got there, but Shadow only allowed himself to comfort her when he was sure they were safe.

"I'm sorry, Maria! I didn't mean to-" Shadow started, shifting his weight from foot to foot frantically, but was cut off when Maria threw her arms around his neck.

"I was so scared! I thought you weren't gonna come and then you were gonna get hurt and Grandfather didn't follow us and I don't want him to get hurt either!" Maria said, through the crying. Shadow wrapped his arms around her.

"It's okay, Maria. Dr. Robotnik will be just fine! He's probably gonna help put out the fire and save the whole space station. He'd never get hurt by something as silly like fire." Shadow assured his friend with a smile.

"You think so?" Maria asked, pulling back to wipe tears from her eyes. One of the youngest scientists, a handsome man with brown hair and glasses, spoke before Shadow got a chance.

"He's absolutely right." He agreed, giving the girl a confident smile. "Dr. Robotnik is too smart to get hurt by fire! In fact, I bet that fire will go out just by seeing him."

"No, it won't." Maria said, tilting her head to one side and giving him a disapproving glance.

"Sure it will! It'll be like, 'No! Not Dr. Robotnik! He's too awesome to combat against! My fiery existence is doomed! Noooooooo!' And then poof...it goes out." He told her, changing his voice into a really silly high pitched tone and doing a bunch of random over-the-top motions with his hands when he spoke as the fire. Maria giggled at the scientist.

"You're so silly!" She told him.

"But I'm right." He ruffled her blond hair. "You'll see."

Moments later, another man walked through the door.

"It's safe to come out now." He announced.

Maria stood and walked over to him.

"Where's Grandfather?" She asked, though this man was pretty unfamiliar to her.

"Dr. Robotnik." Shadow said in response to the man's slightly quizzical expression.

"Oh." He said. "He's back in the research lab, no doubt trying to salvage what he can.

"What did I tell you?" Asked the young scientist from before.

Maria giggled. "You were right. Thank you, sir. I'm gonna see him now. See you later!" She waved before running off, Shadow at her heels.

"I was so close! I was sure the cure would work this time and now it's ruined!" The two children heard from inside the lab. Shadow look led down at his feet, feeling really guilty that he had destroyed the best chance Maria had of a cure. Maria sniffed loudly, tears welling up in her eyes. Gerald heard her and turned to look at her.

"Maria." He said, walking over to her. He scooped her up into his arms and said, "It's okay, sweetheart. I think I can replicate it. You'll be all better in no time."

Maria shook her head, sending waves of blond hair whipping around her head.

"That's not why I'm upset." She informed him, her voice quiet.

"Huh? Then why are you crying?" He asked quizzically.

"Because I made you upset." Maria said. "I didn't mean for your stuff to be destroyed."

"That wasn't your fault, Maria." Shadow piped up. "I'm the one who caused the fire and it was my idea to decorate this room anyway."

"Decorate the room?" Gerald asked.

Maria nodded. "Yeah. We were trying to throw you a party since it's your birthday."

"Oh." Gerald said, looking at the two.

"But now it's ruined. I'm sorry." Maria asked, looking up at him.

A wide grin broke out on the older man's face and he chuckled about something to himself.

"It isn't ruined. I don't need cake or decorations to have a good birthday." Gerald told them.

"You don't?" Maria asked incredulously.

"Nope. I have everything I need right here." He smiled and hugged the two.

"Oh." Maria said a few seconds later, pulling away from the hug. She handed him the drawing and said. "I made you this."

Gerald looked at the childish scribbling depicting a happy little scene of him, Maria, and Shadow in a grassy field with the occasional unnaturally large flower dotting the landscape.

"Thank you very much, sweetheart." The older scientist said, planting a kiss on his granddaughter's forehead.

"Now why don't you two go play for a bit and when I get done here, we can do something fun." Gerald suggested.

"Okay!" Maria chirped, smiling up at him before running out the door with Shadow. He watched until they disappeared through the doorway. Gerald looked at the picture again before turning to a scientist who had been watching in the corner the whole time.

"Alright, Frank. Let's get back to work " Gerald said, the picture sparking an even stronger urge to heal Maria.

"Yes. But, sir...isn't your birthday next month?" The scientist, Frank, asked. Gerald chuckled, a deep throaty sound.

"Yeah, but don't tell them that."


End file.
